Your Daily Phil: What grassroots groups can learn from MACA’s turmoil
Add EJP on GoogleGood Tuesday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we analyze the ongoing turmoil in the Mothers Against College Antisemitism Facebook group and what it means for other grassroots groups. We report on the 20th anniversary of ADI Negev with Doron Almog, and get the scoop on Americans for Ben-Gurion University’s appointment of Melissa Greenberg as its next CEO. In the latest installment of eJP’s exclusive opinion column, “The 501(C) Suite,” Idana Goldberg draws insights from Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film “The Odyssey” and Rabbi Alan Lew’s spiritual guide This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared; and a piece by Daniel Swindell celebrates the difference one person can make (with some help) in the fight to protect pro-Israel speech on campus. Also in this issue: Jennifer Raskas, Nechumi Yaff, and Matan Adelson and Yahav Haliva.
Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is expected to announce sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank today, including a trade ban on goods produced in the area, in what would be a significant escalation of hostilities from the U.K. government toward Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that “Israel will act” against any sanctions, but did not offer any details about what the Israeli response would be. British Jewish groups urged the government to avoid such a move, warning it is likely to stoke antisemitism at home.
In Germany, embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to fight on as his country’s leader despite his center-right Christian Democratic Union party suffering an embarrassing defeat to the far-right Alternative for Germany in a regional election this weekend. The American Jewish Committee said on X that the win “marks a grim milestone,” and noted that AJC Berlin has been “sounding the alarm on the AfD’s rampant, intrinsic, and foundational antisemitism that is deeply embedded in its authoritarian-nationalist politics.”
The 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly opens today in New York, though the high-level meetings of world leaders do not begin for several more weeks.
The Taib Foundation will hold its first-ever Taib Prize for National Resilience ceremony this evening at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Jaffa. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Justin Hayet!
The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is hosting a “Freedom 250” celebration in partnership with the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem this week in honor of the U.S.’ semiquincentennial.
Tonight, Dara Horn will speak in conversation with author Coleman Hughes about her new book, The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living, at 92NY in New York City in collaboration with UJA-Federation of New York.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM eJP’S JAY DEITCHER
On Friday evening, the popular, often boisterous grassroots advocacy Facebook group Mothers Against College Antisemitism instituted new rules: “Pausing” discussions about its “internal dispute” and prioritizing “posts that directly support our mission of addressing college and university antisemitism and supporting Jewish students, Jewish faculty, and their families.” Titled “Moving forward and Shabbat shalom,” the post was written in response to months of turmoil within the nearly 60,000-person group over an ongoing lawsuit between the founder of the Facebook group, Elizabeth Rand, and the independent board of the nonprofit that emerged from MACA, which has since taken control of the Facebook group.
eJewishPhilanthropy has been following the “internal dispute” for nine months, when issues first arose. In the wake of the Oct. 7 terror group, the Facebook group has emerged as a major force in campus conversations, informing parents about other students’ experiences, rallying advocates and raising awareness about antisemitic incidents on campuses across the country.
Experts told eJP that the schism within MACA is also emblematic of issues that many post-Oct. 7 initiatives are facing as they transform from grassroots efforts that emerged as a rebuke of the legacy organizations that they considered to be ineffectual into more formalized, funded organizations. Some groups have so far succeeded in doing so, while others — lacking the leadership training and organizational infrastructure that can lay the groundwork for such transformations — are struggling to overcome the infighting and challenges that these transitions provoke.
News
MARKING MILESTONES
From empty desert to ‘small town,’ ADI Negev marks 20 years of making Israel a more caring place
After their son, Eran, was born with severe disabilities, Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog and his wife, Didi, quickly realized there was no framework or community for children like him. So they created one. In 2005, Doron and Didi Almog founded ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran, building it into a 40-acre inclusive community, continuing even after Eran died in 2007 of Castleman disease, a rare lymph disorder, at 23. Last Wednesday, the rehabilitation village, which now houses 170 permanent residents with disabilities and serves more than 3,000 people a year, marked its 20th anniversary, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet.
Mindset shift: ADI Negev marked the occasion with a celebration attended by hundreds, which included keynote addresses by President Isaac Herzog and Almog himself, who still serves as chairman of ADI Negev in addition to his role as chairman of the executive at the Jewish Agency. “Israeli society is more sensitive today after ADI Negev came to the public consciousness with a message about the weakest in our society. We teach students all over Israel in elementary, we teach acceptance and inclusion,” he said.
EXCLUSIVE
Americans for Ben-Gurion University taps Melissa B. Greenberg as next CEO
Americans for Ben-Gurion University has tapped Melissa B. Greenberg as its next CEO, the organization exclusively told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet.
Bona fides: A veteran fundraiser, Greenberg grew philanthropic giving at Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement’s rabbinical seminary, by some 300% over four years as its chief philanthropy officer, according to Americans for Ben-Gurion University. She previously served as the executive vice president and chief development officer at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
Opinion
THE 501(C) SUITE
The ‘great wealth transfer’ has a disconnect, and Jewish philanthropy needs to find it
In In the latest installment of eJewishPhilanthropy’s exclusive opinion column, “The 501(C) Suite,” Russell Berrie Foundation CEO Idana Goldberg explores the ideas of teshuva and nostos — an ancient Greek word meaning “homecoming” or “return home” — and how they can inform an individual or institution’s approach to philanthropy.
“Strategic plans, theories of change, landscape analyses and capacity building initiatives are among the tools we use as funders to navigate toward our goals. But, like Odysseus, we encounter distractions and stumbling blocks. … Nostos-shaped philanthropy asks us to keep our destination in view. Are the decisions we make getting us closer to the impact we seek? When circumstances force us to change course, are we still moving toward our target?”
LEGAL VICTORY
Seeing through the ruse
IIn an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, University of Missouri alum Daniel Swindell recounts his experience successfully pursuing legal action to address a double standard he encountered against pro-Israel speech on campus.
“I never expected that peacefully handing out information about Israel at my alma mater would get me banned from campus, or that challenging that ban would lead to university-wide policy change nearly two years later. But as this journey finally comes to a close, it has been a powerful reminder that speaking up can make a difference.”
Worthy Reads
Mend the Model: In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, FINCA CEO Andrée Simon pushes back on a Wall Street Journal critique of microfinance, arguing that responsible financial services deliver lasting gains for people living on the margins and that the field should refine the model rather than abandon it. “Rather than choosing between blind optimism and wholesale dismissal, microfinance providers and funders must recognize the value of responsible financial services, while continuing to refine and improve the model so that it genuinely serves the people who need it.”
Mamdani’s Man on the Inside: In Jewish Insider, Will Bredderman profiles Uri Fraenkel, an Israel-supporting Lubavitcher and career civil servant, who chaperoned New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani through Borough Park before the High Holidays. “‘If the mayor didn’t hire an Orthodox Jew, we would scream he doesn’t have an Orthodox Jew in the administration,’ [Rabbi Yaacov Behrman] said. “‘What if a person in a yeshiva needs to work with somebody in the city? Do you want them not to have anybody they’re comfortable with in the administration?’”
Transitions
The Walder Foundation announced the hiring of Melissa Goldberg as its newest program associate focusing on Jewish life. The foundation also announced Jennifer Raskas will be joining the foundation as its director of new initiatives and educator in residence in the foundation’s Israel office.
The Religious Zionists of America-Mizrachi elected Pace Cooper as its new president and Stephen M. Flatow as its chairman…
Nechumi Yaff joined the newly formed Charedi Public party’s Knesset slate, making her the first woman ever fielded by an Israeli ultra-Orthodox party…
Word on the Street
Israel’s 2025 scores on the Programme for International Student Assessment, an OECD test of 15-year-olds’ reading, math and science skills, fell to their lowest since the country joined in 2000, sliding to 43rd worldwide…
California lawmakers passed SB 1387, which would make the state the first to offer a Jewish ethnicity box on official forms, igniting debate among Jews over identity, data and the risks of being singled out…
A new Tel Aviv University study found that roughly 1,370 doctors spent at least a year abroad between 2023 and 2025, up 94% from the prior decade, as researchers caution that the exodus of veteran physicians threatens lasting harm to Israel’s health system…
The Washington Post spotlights investor Bill Ackman, who is backing an experimental therapy after his daughter lost her sight to a brain hemorrhage, and has pledged over $400 million for a longevity and brain-health institute…
Globes reports venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has expanded its Israel push since Google‘s $32 billion Wiz deal as the firm doubles its local scouting network to catch startups earlier…
The U.K.’s Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg announced his intention to seek a second term…
Ousted Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein purchased the “Blue” sculpture removed from the center’s grounds last week for more than $2 million and plans to display it at the National Gallery of Art, where Rubenstein chairs the board…
The Israeli healthcare provider Clalit is exercising its right of first refusal to buy Yair Landau’s 10% stake in Herzliya Medical Center for $40 million, blocking a purchase by the Wiz founders and cementing the health fund’s control…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the state will distribute $70 million to 290 nonprofits vulnerable to hate crimes, the largest round of funding in the program’s history…
Delta and United are resuming daily direct flights from the New York area to Ben Gurion Airport this week as Israeli airline Israir is expected to launch its inaugural flights to New York next month…
Hapoel Jerusalem owner Matan Adelson, the youngest son of Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, married Yahav Haliva over the weekend…d threatened to kill them…
Pic of the Day
Dalia Amit Zivan, the clinical director of a trial using the psychedelic drug MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder at Metiv: The Israel Psychotrauma Center, speaks yesterday at a mezuzah-hanging ceremony for a new cabin where the treatments will be conducted at Herzog Medical Center in Jerusalem. The cabin was donated by the children of the Tenenbaum family in memory of their parents, Joseph and Gena, who were both Holocaust survivors.
Speaking about his father’s experiences in the Holocaust at the event, Sid Tenenbaum said that he had been tattooed not with a number but with the letters “KL” — the German acronym for Konzentrationslager, or concentration camp. “He and his friends didn’t want to think about it as referring to Konzentrationslager, so they said it stands for kodesh le’Hashem [holy to God],” Tenenbaum said.
Disclosure: eJewishPhilanthropy Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross’ wife, Anna Harwood-Gross, is the chief researcher of the MDMA trial.
Birthdays
Howard Mark Lorber, former chairman of Douglas Elliman and its former parent company, Vector Group, he is also executive chairman of Nathan’s Famous, turns 78
Leslie H. “Les” Wexner, chair emeritus of Bath & Body Works, turns 89
Bernie Sanders, U.S. senator from Vermont, he was a 2016 and 2020 presidential candidate, turns 85
Samuel D. Waksal, pharma executive, turns 79
Jeffrey Lurie, owner of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, winners of the Super Bowl in 2017 and 2024, turns 75
Eli Aflalo, former co-chair of the Jewish National Fund, he was previously a member of Knesset, turns 74
Mindy Grossman, CEO of Weight Watchers until early 2022, turns 69
Jay W. Abarbanel, owner of Sam’s Fine Wines & Spirits in Walpole, Mass., for 41 years until 2022
Daniel Wolpert, British physician and professor of neuroscience at Columbia University, turns 63
Scott Levy, professional wrestler, known by his ring name, Raven, turns 62
James Ginsburg, founder and president of Cedille Records, a classical music label, he is the son of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, turns 61
Zarakh Iliev, real estate developer in Russia owning 14 million square feet of retail as well as many luxury hotels and shopping centers, turns 60
James Packer, Australian businessman, turns 59
Rabbi Andrea Merow, senior rabbi of the Jewish Center of Princeton
Adam Goldsmith, Aspen, Colo., resident
Brooke Burke, actor, model and television personality, she is the host of “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” turns 55
Robyn Faintich, founder and executive education consultant at Atlanta-based JewishGPS
Jonathan Leshnoff, classical music composer and professor of music at Towson University, whose works include “Zohar,” “Nekudim” and “Heichalos,” turns 53
Jonathan Rosen, CEO of Orchestra
Alecia Beth Moore, one of the world’s best-selling music artists, known professionally as Pink, turns 47
Asaf Ganot, head coach for the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team
Spencer Gerrol, founder and CEO at SPARK Neuro
Andrei Berman, executive vice president at Biederman LLC.
Jay Weinberg, drummer for the funk metal band Infectious Grooves, he is the son of Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg, turns 36
Serena Deutch, an MBA candidate at Tulane
Gabby Deutch, former senior national correspondent for Jewish Insider, now a staff writer at The Atlantic
Gilad Peled, director of education at Itrek
Philip Ehrensaft
